Hymn to Mitra and Varuṇa
Rigveda I.137 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) addressed to Mitra and Varuṇa, the great pair: Mitra the lord of covenant and Varuṇa the upholder of cosmic law. It is one of the 1,028 hymns of the Rigveda organized within Maṇḍala 1, the first of ten books. The ṛṣi (seer) to whom this hymn is attributed and its precise liturgical context are recorded in the traditional Śākalya Anukramaṇī.
The Rigveda is the oldest of the four Vedas and one of the oldest surviving religious texts in the world, composed approximately 1700–1100 BCE in the Vedic Sanskrit of the Indus-Sarasvatī region. Its hymns were preserved through oral transmission across millennia before being committed to writing. This is a Good Works Translation produced by the New Tianmu Anglican Church from the Sanskrit of the Śākala recension.
Mitra and Varuṇa, hear us now! We call upon you as the bringers of rain and the givers of justice! The earth doth cry out for thy waters! The parched lands do lift their faces to the sky, praying that thou might'st hear us and send the rains to make them fertile again!
In the hot season, when the sun doth beat down upon the earth with unrelenting fury, all living things do suffer. The rivers shrink to mere trickles. The wells run dry. The grass withers in the fields. The animals do search desperately for water to drink. The people suffer from thirst and from hunger.
Then the monsoon winds do come! The clouds begin to gather! Thunder doth roll across the heavens! And at last, O glorious moment! The rains do fall! The earth drinketh deeply! The rivers overflow their banks! The grass springeth up green and fresh! The animals find water and good pasture! The people do rejoice!
This is thy gift to us, O mighty ones! This is the blessing that thou dost bestow upon the righteous! Rain for the fields! Justice for the oppressed! Order from chaos! Prosperity for all who do honor thee!
O Mitra and Varuṇa, we offer thee our prayers and our sacrifices! Let thy rains fall upon our lands! Let thy justice reign in our cities! Let thy cosmic order be upheld throughout all the worlds! May the waters flow! May the sun shine! May all creatures drink deeply of thy blessings!
Colophon
Rigveda I.137 is drawn from the Śākala recension of the Rigveda, the version that has been transmitted and is considered canonical in the mainstream tradition. The Rigveda was composed approximately 1700–1100 BCE; this hymn addresses Mitra and Varuṇa, the great pair: Mitra the lord of covenant and Varuṇa the upholder of cosmic law. This is a Good Works Translation produced by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, translated independently from the Sanskrit. Reference translations consulted during original translation session to be documented during Kshatriya Blood Rule audit.
Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
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Source Text: ṛgveda I.137
ā rājānā divispṛśāsmatrā gantam upa naḥ |
ime vām mitrāvaruṇā gavāśiraḥ somāḥ śukrā gavāśiraḥ || 1 ||
uta vām uṣaso budhi sākaṁ sūryasya raśmibhiḥ |
suto mitrāya varuṇāya pītaye cārur ṛtāya pītaye || 2 ||
asmatrā gantam upa no 'rvāñcā somapītaye |
ayaṁ vām mitrāvaruṇā nṛbhiḥ sutaḥ soma ā pītaye sutaḥ || 3 ||
Source Colophon
Sanskrit text of the Rigveda, Śākala recension. The standard scholarly edition is the Bombay Oriental (Vishva Bandhu, 5 vols., 1963–66). IAST transliteration available from GRETIL (Göttingen Register of Electronic Texts in Indian Languages) and Vedaweb (University of Cologne). Both sources are open access. IAST transliteration from the Aufrecht edition (1877) via GRETIL (Van Nooten & Holland input, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).
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